UFC Vancouver takeaways: De Ridder quitting on stool a shocking finish

Reinier de Ridder had the chance to jump to the front of the line in the middleweight division if he were able to pick up an impressive win over Brendan Allen in the main event of a UFC Fight Night event in Vancouver. 

Suffice it to say, that did not happen and de Ridder’s stock took a nosedive after he was unable to continue fighting following four rounds of action.

The 35-year-old from Netherlands started strong and dominated the opening round. He is a judo and jiu-jitsu black belt and put those skills to work early by throwing Allen to the mat and immediately moving into mount where he began working for an arm-triangle. He also controlled much of the first five minutes from back control as he looked for submission openings.

Allen defended and survived the round and de Ridder wasn’t the same fighter in the second. In fact, de Ridder faded fast as Allen was able to continuously get into advantageous positions during grappling exchanges in rounds two, three and four.

Allen accepted this matchup on short notice after de Ridder’s original opponent, Anthony Hernandez, withdrew with an injury but Allen looked like the fresher fighter even though he hadn’t been preparing for a five-round fight like de Ridder had.

Before joining the UFC roster last year, de Ridder was a titleholder at 205 and 225 pounds in the ONE Championship organization and had never previously lost when competing in the 185-pound division and started his UFC career 4-0 as a middleweight. 

Three days before the event at Rogers Arena, however, de Ridder posted a video to social media of him stepping on a scale fully clothed weighing 100 kilograms, or roughly 220 pounds.

De Ridder made weight on Friday, hitting the non-title middleweight limit of 186 pounds but based on how quickly he faded against Allen it begs the question: how much did de Ridder’s massive weight cut impact his performance and gas tank in Vancouver?

The body language de Ridder displayed after the third round suggested he was gassed and after the fourth round his corner decided to call off the match with their fighter unable to answer the bell.

It was a shocking and somewhat anticlimactic conclusion to what was an otherwise entertaining Fight Night card.

The headliners were familiar with one another since both represent the Kill Cliff gym in south Florida even though they don’t ever directly train together or spar. RDR had former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in his corner, and Allen had former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in his.

Allen, 29, has now won two in a row. He was coming off a Fight of the Night win over Marvin Vettori in July. Prior to that he was coming off back-to-back decision losses to Hernandez and Nassourdine Imavov, who’s now the frontrunner to earn the next title shot against new champ Khamzat Chimaev.

Allen has won nine of his past 11 overall and after beating de Ridder he called out Chimaev plus former champs Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland as his potential next opponent.

Vancouver kind to Canadian fighters again: The last time the UFC held an event in Vancouver was UFC 289 in June of 2023. That night, every Canadian, plus one Canadian-based fighter (shout-out Diana Belbita), left Rogers Arena with their win bonuses. The seven Canadian fighters at UFC Vancouver didn’t sweep the card this time around, but they ended up going a solid 5-2 on the night.

Mike Malott, Aiemann Zahabi and Kyle Nelson were victorious at both UFC 289 and UFC Vancouver but Jasmine Jasudavicius couldn’t do the same. Malott, Zahabi and Nelson all won decisions on the main card but Jasudavicius had her hot streak come to an end. Kyle Prepolec also fell short in a preliminary bout.

The two standout Canadian performances of the night were from Charles Jourdain, who earned a highlight-reel finish over Davey Grant, and UFC newcomer Melissa Croden. Jourdain rocked Grant with a flying knee and seconds later secured a tight guillotine choke that forced a tap. Croden, meanwhile, was all smiles walking to the cage ahead of her bout with Tainara Lisboa and the 34-year-old from Calgary was still smiling after getting her hand raised with a third-round TKO.

Also, Brendan Allen is an American from Louisiana but donned a Canadian fight kit for the main event as he paid homage to two of his grandparents who are from Alberta.

Malott brothers compete simultaneously: It must’ve been a tense half hour or so for the Malott family on Saturday night. Rising welterweight star Mike Malott stepped into the Octagon at basically the exact same time his brother, Jeff, who’s a member of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, stepped onto the ice in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Malott improved to 6-1 in the UFC and earned the biggest win of his career by taking a unanimous decision over the No. 15-ranked contender Kevin Holland in the 170-pound co-main event. The fight was marred by an accidental Malott low blow late in the opening round that led to a five-minute delay and impacted Holland’s performance, but even before the foul Malott showed he can compete with ranked welterweights. We’ll have to wait a few days before we know whether Malott will debut in the rankings but he’ll be in line for another big matchup in his next outing regardless.

Earlier in the evening, Jeff Malott was seen showing his support for his sibling by wearing a shirt that had on it his brother’s image and nickname. Jeff ended up registering 2:09 in ice-time and led both teams with four hits in the opening period of Kings-Hurricanes whilst his brother fought with Holland.

Fiorot rebounds at expense of a fan favourite: Manon Fiorot is still firmly a threat to the women’s flyweight title. The 35-year-old from France pushed reigning champion Valentina Shevchenko to the limit in their UFC 315 title fight earlier this year in Montreal, just falling short after a competitive five-round decision, and she got back in the win column in a big way much to the chagrin of Canadian fight fans.

Fiorot made quick work of the ultra-popular Jasudavicius on the main card. Fiorot rocked Jasudavicius about a minute into their 125-pound matchup with a crisp straight left hand that had Jasudavicius on skates and she followed up with a series of hard left hands as Jasudavicius faceplanted on the canvas. Jasudavicius never went completely out and complained about the stoppage afterwards, however she was clearly not intelligently defending herself.

Fiorot will have a close eye on Shevchenko’s upcoming UFC 322 title fight with Weili Zhang next month.

Zahabi wants in on 'The Suga Show': Aiemann Zahabi extended his winning streak to seven in a row after getting his hand raised via split decision against one-time title challenger Marlon Vera. Zahabi entered the weekend as the No. 9 contender at bantamweight with Vera at No. 7 and Zahabi will leapfrog Vera when the rankings next update. After the hard-fought win, Zahabi called out former 135-pound champion “Suga” Sean O’Malley who’s currently the No. 1-ranked contender in the weight class.

O’Malley is a former rival of Vera, who appeared to injure or potentially even break one of his fingers on his left hand in the opening round but fought through it and even dropped Zahabi in second round with a jab with that same left hand. Zahabi was able to endure and showed off his durability just like he did at UFC 315 earlier this year when he was badly rocked by Jose Aldo but held on to ultimately win a decision.

“I thought I won the first and the last round,” Zahabi said of his scrap with Vera. “To win at this level, it takes your whole heart. It takes everything you have and I proved it again tonight that every time I come in the Octagon I leave it all out there. It doesn’t matter who, I’m gonna fight my heart out.

“I was definitely a little stunned. He knocked me off balance but I wasn’t as out as I was against Aldo. I just kind of lost my balance basically but I just said, ‘You know what? Just recover, make some space, win the next exchange, win the next 15 seconds, come back stronger,’ and I finished Round 2 stronger than he did.”

Nelson robbed of first-round finish: A crucial mistake from referee Dan Miragliotta prevented Kyle Nelson from earning a first-round knockout win over Matt Frevola. Nelson rocked Frevola at the end of the opening round and was teeing off with right hands from the guard. It appeared that Frevola was seriously rocked and that Miragliotta was stepping in to wave the fight off, however much to the surprise of Nelson and everyone watching the fight continued. 

Miragliotta told the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner that he thought he heard the horn signalling the end of the end of the round even though there were several seconds remaining.

The crowd at Rogers Arena repeatedly chanted “ref you suck!” and Nelson had to ultimately settle for a unanimous decision victory instead after a relatively competitive final two rounds.

Some fight fans joked online following the bizarre turn of events that Nelson should be rewarded with not one but two separate win bonuses – one for the would-be TKO and one for the decision.

Prepolec can’t catch a break: The other Canadian Kyle on the card also had some bad luck in his bout. Kyle Prepolec was holding his own against longtime UFC lightweight star Drew Dober before an inadvertent low blow from a Dober kick resulted in a massive momentum shift. Prepolec, a 155-pounder from Windsor, Ont., was clearly affected by the foul and needed several minutes to recover.

Although Dober was deducted a point, Prepolec was compromised as the fight resumed and Dober took advantage of the break by quickly hurting Prepolec with punches from which Prepolec couldn’t recover.

Prepolec is one of the top lightweight fighters in Canada yet his UFC record is now an unfortunate 0-4. He went 0-2 in 2019 before being released by the organization, went 4-1 on the regional scene to earn another shot, but has gone 0-2 since re-signing in 2025. He has accepted two of his UFC bouts on less than a week’s notice and was injured by a foul in his most recent loss. It’ll be interesting to see if his second stint in the UFC lasts more than two fights. Hopefully it does because he was holding his own against Dober and against Benoit Saint Denis in May before being stopped in both bouts.

One bit of silver lining for Prepolec was the fact he and Dober were each awarded a $50,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.

Belgaroui’s time with “Poatan” paying off: Yousri Belgaroui is all of a sudden a compelling name to keep an eye on at 185 pounds. Belgaroui pulled off a preliminary card upset of Azamat Bekoev, who was a three-to-one betting favourite, thanks to a third-round TKO. 

Belgaroui is a former kickboxing star who had past rivalries with both Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya. Now he’s a training partner of Pereira and his work with the current 205-pound champion has clearly been paying off. Belgaroui used his six-foot-six frame to pick apart the six-foot Bekoev and earn a big win in his UFC debut.